On her hilarious debut album, Ice Cream Money – to be released on March 1 via Blonde Medicine – Los Angeles-based comedian Ashley Ray finds something to laugh at in every aspect of life. Whether she’s discussing growing up in the midwest, sharing stories about dating a flat-earther, or explaining how her mom ended-up on Seth Rogen’s podcast, Ray sets the stage for effortless laughter.
“I’m so excited for this to be out in the world. I’ve been doing stand-up now for about eight years and this is a wonderful culmination of everything I’ve learned and laughed about in my life and on the road. I’ve been really thankful to do a lot of festivals and tour all over the country,” Ray explained by phone last month. “And, I think there’s something for everyone here.”
There is absolutely something for everyone to chuckle at on Ice Cream Money, but more than that, it’s a lot of fun. Listening along as Ray unpacks pop culture phenomena – like the reasons why gorgeous A-list women find Pete Davidson irresistible – is a really good time. It’s like a timeless hang-out movie that you want to revisit as soon as it ends.
“When I do my hour in my shows that’s the vibe I like to create. I want the audience to feel like they’re hearing something intimate and funny,” said Ray explaining that Brooklyn’s Union Hall, where the album was recorded, has a home-space feel for her. “Union Hall was one of the first spaces where it was like, ‘Oh, this is a real comedy, well-known establishment and I’m performing here where legends have done things.’ So, it was kind of like a return to that part of my career where I was so excited about it. All my friends came – people that I’ve known since like fourth grade – so it really did feel like this reunion, homecoming, let’s just hang out and hear some funny stuff vibe.”
Track eight is entitled “It Takes 21 Minutes for Ashley to Mention She’s Polyamorous,” which begs the question… why 21 minutes?
“I think people sort of expect a comic like me to really lead with identity politics and identity jokes and a lot of Ice Cream Money is me making fun of myself as much as I make fun of the situations I run into in life,” said Ray, adding with a chuckle. “I really wanted it to come from this place of, ‘I am in on the joke.’ I know that everyone rolls their eyes when you hear polyamory. I’m not here to preach at you about it. I think you kind of have to embrace there’s a cringyness to it.”
Along with romantic relationships, Ray also mines her family life to find hilarity in passing moments and momentous occasions like when her mom came out to the family. Each story is told with equal parts love and laughter and fans can rest assured that the material is mom approved.
“She [Ray’s mother] loves it. It happened awhile ago when she came out and we talked about it as a family. A few years after she was really able to laugh about it – and I made sure she was comfortable with me using that – and I think when Seth Rogen asked if he could interview her about it, she was like, ‘I’m so comfortable with it,’” said Ray laughing as she referenced the track, “Seth Rogen and My Gay Mom.”
Ray has been performing stand-up comedy for about eight years and was named a 2021 HBO Max Queer Comic to Watch and 2023 BET Black Woman Comic to Watch. Though she is now located in L.A., she got her start at the famous open mic held at Cole’s Bar in Chicago. She explained that after growing tired of the stereotypes she observed as a Black woman performing at storytelling shows, she realized that the overly earnest interactions with the audience weren’t what kept her coming back to the mic, it was the laughs.
“It was so supportive in Chicago and there isn’t that competitive, grind culture of the coasts,” said Ray noting that the hosts at the time – Becca O’Neal (Comedy Central Stand-Up Featuring) and Sarah Sherman (Saturday Night Live) – were incredibly encouraging. “Going to Cole’s, eventually the two hosts Becca O’Neal and Sarah Sherman, they were really pushing to get more women in their open mic. So, if you were a woman and you wanted to go up, they would put you up early – some people would have to wait until 1 a.m. If you were a woman they would try to get you on before midnight.”
“I just remember the first time I got up there, I immediately fell in love. I also made people laugh, which shocked me because it was my first time ever doing stand-up and I think I told a joke about Gypsy Rose [Blanchard]. The documentary about her had just come out and I made a joke about something in it and was shocked people even knew what I was talking about. I just loved it,” said Ray. “I immediately started going to the open mic as much as I could, doing as many shows as I could.”
On top of comedy, Ray also loves television in all its forms. She previously wrote criticism for The A.V. Club and Vulture and she now hosts the popular podcast TV, I Say w/Ashley Ray on the Earwolf network where she celebrates the sometimes overlooked shows currently streaming and airing.
“I think today, there’s so many TV shows, people are always missing things. Things don’t get promoted as much as we want and I wanted a place where I could fight for the little shows that have these amazing actors or writers that maybe you haven’t heard of but you should be watching,” she said
Her current obsession? The Traitors on Peacock.
Ray explained, “Everyone needs to be watching this show. It’s the best reality competitive show that I’ve ever seen in my life. It is better than Survivor, Big Brother, anything else. Sorry it is. It is basically a bunch of reality TV celebrities playing Mafia in a haunted castle with Alan Cumming. It’s perfect.”
From start to finish, Ice Cream Money is full of Ray’s witty insights, pop culture references, and personal jokes. It’s delicious title track was actually one of the later bits that Ray wrote. It was inspired by an interaction she had with a “full grown adult man” who offered to pick her up a treat when she was feeling sick, but soon revealed that he didn’t have “ice cream money.”
“He was 40 and not a child who didn’t get his allowance,” said Ray with a laugh. “It made me so sad. It was a perfect joke and I knew that I had to put it in my set. I also thought everyone should have ice cream money.”
She continued, “This is my way of making sure everyone in the world has a little bit of ice cream money. It’s something kind of sweet. A lot of the jokes are about my family and my background and it is just a love letter to all the things that make me, me.”
You can get your own copy – digitally or on vinyl – of Ice Cream Money on March 1 when Ashley Ray’s debut is released. Beginning March 13, Ray will be co-hosting – along with Babs Gray – Flex, a monthly show at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles, and she plans to tour across the country this summer. Click here to pre-order the album and keep up with all things Ashley Ray at Theashleyray.com.